Abstract
The paper demonstrates that blind people localize sounds more accurately
than sighted people by using monaural and/or binaural cues.
In the experiment, blind people participated in two tests; the first one took
place in the laboratory and the second one in the real environment under
different noise conditions. A simple click sound was employed and
processed with non-individual head related transfer functions. The sounds
were delivered by a system with a maximum azimuth of 32° to the left side
and 32° to the right side of the participant’s head at a distance ranging
from 0.3 m up to 5 m.
The present paper describes the experimental methods and results of virtual
sound localization by blind people through the use of a simple electronic
travel aid based on an infrared laser pulse and the time of flight
distance measurement principle. The lack of vision is often compensated by
other perceptual abilities, such as the tactile or hearing ability.
The results show that blind people easily perceive and localize binaural
sounds and assimilate them with sounds from the environment.
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